Regaining parents' trust
On the way to work this morning, I had another quick look at the Beijing Paediatric Research Institute (one of 74 hospitals in Beijing where parents worried about tainted milk powder can take their children to be checked for kidney stones).
A crowd of parents lined up in the car park at the back, waiting to get their babies checked. Doctors took a urine sample and carried out an ultrasound on each infant - the results are given the next day.
Outside the front gate, parents came out with their children. Many babies held on to balloons - their reward for a pretty painful morning.
"My kid Kaikai is three years old, he's been drinking the milk powder for over a year and we have no idea whether he's okay or not, so we just came to do a test, "said one mother, "We blame the factory for manufacturing the milk."
"My kid is nine and a half months old, he's been drinking the milk powder since he was born," said another, "We're really angry with the milk manufacturers, and the useless quality inspection departments."
Right now, many parents no longer trust milk powder made in China. So, they're looking for alternatives. Some have decided to buy foreign-made baby milk powder instead.
Newspaper reports say that others have switched their infants to soybean milk or rice soup. One newspaper says that some mothers are even looking for wet nurses to feed their children.
The Communist Party has promised to reform the dairy industry. But from the anger I've seen outside the hospital, it'll take more than a promise to win back parents' trust.
I’m 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~51~RS~)
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Let's hope basic safety checks have been done on the huge glut of China-manufactured toys sold to parents in this country. Is the paint toxic, for instance? We've no way of knowing - is someone checking such things here?
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It's shocking what a poor monitoring job the govenment has done.
This is revealed only because it's serious enough , god knows how many of us are being poisoned with many other unknown contaminated food!
I assume we need to become farmers ourselves and only eat food that grows in our own field.
I've stopped buying processed food long time ago
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Laws don't work well in China, just trusting the people to do the right thing is not good neither.
It's about time the Chinese gov't put in place heavy handed inspectors all along the supply lines, making sure to check and test everything and do the same for every process.
Get the local spy network to look for evil doers, these bad guys will expire real fast and they will pay more than they will ever hope to make.
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While it is terrible [the milk poisoning], this news would not have received publicity if it happened in America or Cuba.
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It's true that we don't know what we're eating nowadays. Lots of things are GM and you don't even know it.
I hope this is a big lesson and wake up call to quality control management in China - although I doubt it will be the last time. China is a huge place, full of uneducated people, there will bound to be more cases until the whole of the country catches up to the modern standard.
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beijing_200, I can guarantee if this happened here in Australia it would be a HUGE story in the media.
Stop being so paranoid. Bad baby food is news ANYWHERE.
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to Beijing_2008,
If I were James, the only positive thing I can think of now is, I don't have the habit of drinking milk so far. I'm sick of people pretending that everything is OK, when they are not. The government has failed, as far as I'm concerned, to perform its functions. Yes, the greedy manufacturers are to blame, but shouldn't the inspection authorities be responsible for everything? And Isn't it the responsibility of the government to protect its people? What have we got so far? Tainted food and medicine, toxic toys...and mind you, this isn't the first time we heard about of tainted baby formula (Fuyang, Anhui province should not be a strange name, in case you were wondering.) What would you do if you were a journalist, Beijing_2008? Pretend everything is fine or cover it up, and we can expect some poisonous bottled water sometime soon. By the way, I am a Chinese living in China all my life.
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Logically there is no difference between killing amid robbery and killing by selling off-standard food. Both is motivated by greed and both has zero regard to human life. Who (individual or group) ever responsible this should be charged with manslaughter and pay by either death penalty or life sentence, and with their family to pay a heavy fine at the same time.
Punishments must be hard enough to teach rest of the population that it is not worth it to allow greed to take over in this areas of health and safety of the general public.
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beijing_2008,
I can not agree with u. I think any consciecious person, if James included:), shoud condemn the milk company but also the government for their dereliction of duty in this case.
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Why do we need to work harder to gain anyone's trust?
We have 4M strong PLA standing by! Who dare not to trust us?
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At 2:54pm on 18 Sep 2008, beijing_2008 wrote:
"This event is, of course, unfortunate but if it had happened anywhere else in the world, the Western press would not have given it a minute of coverage. "
1/ Unfortunate is such an understatement.
2/ Poisoned baby food can hardly happen anywhere else in the world. Contaminated food maybe, but poisoned baby food NO!
3/ You sound like we are gleeful that it happened. petty of you. we are sad, mostly. and shocked with disbelieve.
4/ A major country like China rightly deserves more media attention. any major injustice deserves sensational reporting, like a the the Austrian man has confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a cellar for 24 years. Its not about attacking china, its about social injustice!
5/ As a malaysian chinese, i am vary about purchasing or consuming China made food in future as as China fail time and again to regulate their baby food, what about adult food. it could be many times worse!
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To Beijing_2008
I can't believe it, in this tragic time, what you can think of is James negative reporting? It is only human to care about the victims, no matter Chinese or not. And what negative report? This time I think James has said too little and not condemned those responsible enough.
Even if it had happened everywhere in the world, there would still be no justification of this evil deed. And can you name another country that poisons its children to make money? please, name it.
I just feel shameful to be a chinese right now.
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beijing_2008 - you couldn't be more wrong. sorry to disappoint your conspiratory theory but this would be a massive story anywhere in the world and in particular, people do care. look up the problems nestle have been dogged with following their baby milk scandal. That was hardly kept a secret from the western world. The only people to blame and be angry at here are those responsible for this horrible situation. not James.
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James:
I don't know what can take place to regain the parents trust.
But this is going towards that road.
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Agreeing with an earlier comment, James seems like this is the perfect; a negative story to be blown out of portion
I've just come back from holiday.. nothing changed with the reporting
James, keep up the good work
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Surprised you are not asking question whether this adulteration would have been made public earlier if there had been no Beijing Olympics?
The IOC has blood on its hands for awarding the Olympics to Beijing.
Great reporting first para notwithstanding.
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At the time of this post, the most recent news say that the milk from China's two largest dairy manufacturers - Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group - contained up to 8.4 milligrams of melamine per kg.
Some other reports say yogurt and ice cream products are also contaminated. Then apart from babies, what can happen to adults?
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As a Chinese having lived in China for over 2 decades, I know this kinda scandal is just a tip of an iceberg. The causes are so deep and profound that no cure for them.
1. the demoralization of the society(all brain washed by totally corrupted CCP and everybody chases money and their own benefits) which explains why those businesses and individuals have no moral and behavioral standards. They only thing they eye on is money/profit regardless of any possible damages.
2. Corruption and Bribery makes everything possible; people dare to do anything even break the law for money. Don't they fear about justice? No they don't - money is the key to anything everything; it can buy them out of jail or they will be simply acquainted if they really do it 'right'. That's why Sanlu and then local authorities covered it up initially until it became uncoverable. Well this time round it would be a lil harder for them to get away from well deserved punishment simply because of the wide spread impact and significance.
Chinese like to show off only the glamorous side especially when it comes to 'presentation' (The Olympic opening ceremony was indeed grand) which also implies nothing spared to look 'good'. So I guess though justice will take its course on the milk power scandal, nothing fundamental will take place in China - It'll still be rotten to the core.
Most Chinese have been brainwashed by Chinese government to such an extreme extent that they never admit, even defend, all the problems in China caused by the evil regime. Sad as facing the problems is the 1st step in tackling them.
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I hope the chinese government will pay attention and make concrete reform to protect its citizens - from the corrupt local government officials and the immoral milk/ food dealers/ manufacturers. To do this right, having an independent judicial system to bring the wrong-doers to justice will be the first step.
Let's hope that this is not just another event the government sweeps under the rug (at least this problem is too widespread to pay the parents in exchange for their silience), but something that effects real change.
The local government system, unaccountable to the people it governs, obviously does not work. It's high time to put in place officials who serve the people and not officials who abuse and profit from the people.
China needs to draw the line here and shows its people it is serious about tackling corruption. It should show no mercy to the wrong doers.
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Haha, us Chinese have been handed this one on a plate.
Looks like Japan has used rice intended for glue and industrial use and used it in food products made for human consumptuion.
How can this be? A western nation, yes, Japan likes to class itself as part of the west, failing to monitor its food production, it can't be true, but it is. A democratic nation failing to monitor its food production, it can't be true, but it is.
And the Japanese government have known for over a year and a half. Doing nothing and dismissing the whole affair as irrelevant whilst this tainted rice was being fed to school children and the elderly. And this by one of your so ever so caring and responsible western democratic governments.
At least when the Chinese central government found out about the tainted milk it acted swiftly and decisively, unlike the democratic Japanese government regime.
So for all the China bashers out there, you're not so perfect after all are you!
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Very sad. It all point to the lack of a system with feedback embedded into it. One effective way of doing this would be to mobilise the power of citizens through the Internet to give feedback. The central government shoudl create the mechanism of direct feed back to a sort of Ombudsman. This will act as a check to abuses by provincial authorities and well connected businessmen.
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I feel very sad for the babies and their parents
But this will be one of the best opportunities for China to make improvement and to reform the system, not only on food safty but also on the safty and quality in other industries
Everyone involved should be punished harshly! Every official responsible should step down!
Let their succeeders know they must do something
If we miss this one, I see no hope for our country
Also James, I think you would appear to be more proffessional if you used "The Chinese government" instead of "The Communist Party" in the following sentence, although we all know they are effectively the same
"The Communist Party has promised to reform the dairy industry"
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To 4. beijing_2008
As a Chinese myself, I feel your comments are embarrassing and only show your petulant unwillingness to come to terms with the sometimes undesirable reallity.
You are fighting windmills, unless you are on a secret mission to wipe off whatever negative or opposing opinions about Chinese Communist party--something reminds me of the notorious purge during the Cultural Revelution.
I sometimes don't agree with James. But he is not unusal in terms of being sparing with praise for Chinese government. Hardly can you get anything from a British political journalist (e.g. Nick Robinson) that is not mocking/satirizing British government and politicians.
I believe James and some commentators' disclosure of unsavoury scandals in China helps improve the way Chinese government treats ordinary Chinese citizens in the long run.
Good medicine tastes bitter--surely you don't want sycophants around you all the time.
Please think again before launching another 'whose country and politicians are best' fight that contributes nothing to meaningful debate. This is can be said about some non-Chinese like-minded.
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This was not expected in China.Milk powder needs to pass stringent tests before it is taken.But, how come contaminated powder came into Chinese markets?The manufacturers should pay a hefty fine and immidiately a foriegn stock should be ordered.
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very sad news. Feel sorry for the young babies and their parents involved. They cannot do anything in china.
For such a modern country, china has the most lax food safety law. Or is it that party officials were bribed? I guess we will never properly know (if ever).
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Who to blame? Captalism!!!
Captalism makes peopel greedy wherever it is in China or other countries. Look what is happening in China of milk product, look what is happening in Europe and USA of the turmoil of stock market!
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#17.
That's a pretty repulsive comment.
You should be ashamed. You think the deaths of young children is an anti-Government divine act. How stupid can some people really get.
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-_-....every time I come back to my hometown in China(Cheng Du) I always buy a lot of milk product. Now I can't help doubting if I have been poisoned by those contaminated food products... The negative effect to Chinese made product can hardly be saved by one successful Olympic...or even two.
When Americans tells people to buy American product even in batman movies this is even worse than the worst thing I dare to imagine. I believe this is just a small part of a huge iceberg exposed to the sun. People started complaining about food quality in China long ago.
If China is in democracy the CCP will definitely lose the next general election by this. despite all the efforts they have made by now I will still think twice and probably go for a foreign brand next time I buy milk at home =[
Thanks for the following up report James!
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Everytime when I see pictures of crying babies being checked for kidney stone, I wanted to cry.
The companies manufacturing and selling the poisoned milk powder should be held responsible, so are the government officials who let this happen without any checking (and continued to let this happen for several months even after being alarmed). There is no execuse for what they have done.
Yesterday I saw a picture of a mother hauling tins and tins of imported formula milk from HK back to shenzhen on a HK newspaper. I feel deeply, deeply saddened. Chinese mothers do not trust Chinese milk producers any more. What a tragety for the country.
And that is a lucky mother who has access (financially and otherwise) to imported milk. What about the millions of ordinary mothers who cannot afford imported milk? Do we have to go back to feeding our next generation with rice soup?
I support James in this reporting, no matter how negative it is.
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Everything is reasonable!!
The cow farmers and the diary companies need to add melamine to their products because profits are the terminal aim of commercial business. It is very likely that this sort of adulteration has lasted for a long time since the New York Times reported the open secret in China's feed industry in April last year.
The relevant authority did Know it at least as soon as a victim's parent and a urologist in Southern China reported some unusual cases of kidney stone in babies in around July this year. But those responsible didnot care it and that's quite rational since their prospect depends on not ordinary people's life or health but their high-up. And those shameless bureaucrat such as Hu jintao, the head of the Communist Party claiming the only leadship of China(Don't forget the boss of Sanlu was sacked by the Communist Commitee not by the company), yet not having said sorry to Chinese people, was focusing on maintaining so called social stability, and obviously, a scandal will disturb their amazing dream.Without the international pressure from New Zealand, no doubt the exposure would have been delayed for more time.
Then the most reasonable thing for Chinese people is that if you confess the party's corrupt leadership, you should keep silent, and then accept another scandal absolutely.
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Super-Apologist comes to the rescue!
Dear beijing_2008:
It turns out not a bad day for you either. You found another battle ground to defend the systematically corrupt Chinese government. But can you be more creative?
"You were desperate for a negative story of China to appear after the unparallelled success of the Olympic (and Paralympic) Games."
Isn't this type of senseless association a bit of cliche? If the multiple cases of hospitalization were reported before the Games (as they should have been), you would have undoubtedly claimed that the western media was trying to smear the government's efforts to hold the best Games ever. But remember, it is the Chinese government (who knows at which level) that timed the revelation of the death cases. Now you are saying it's another western conspiracy to dismiss China's success in organizing the Games. Come on, stop being so dramatic.
"To the commentators on these pages: please, don't for a minute, pretend that you care about the victims here. "
beijing_2008: please don't be too quick to judge. It sounds rather condescending.
"This event is, of course, unfortunate but if it had happened anywhere else in the world, the Western press would not have given it a minute of coverage. "
If something terrible happens in a country where one fifth of the world's population lives, you bet the press is all over it. If you happen to notice, the media frenzy over the scandal is ten times more intense in China. Why don't you blame the domestic press? Moreover, the tainted products were exported to other countries. It is no longer your family business behind the door.
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Beijing_2008,
Shame on you! I have twin neices in China now who may have drunk the poisoned milk.... Have you drunk it??? Have you experienced kidney stone pain yourself??? (The same level of pain as women giving birth.)
It is good that Chinese are angry about bad things. We should be angry so that we know what is good. This is the only way that China can get better.
I think James and other truthful journalists should be credited for their work. Telling the true story.....
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The culprits responsible for tainted milk products in China deserve the most severe punishment, and the Chinese gov't should completely overhaul its food safety regulatory system.
Likewise, the culprits responsible for toxic financial products in New York and other financial centres should also be severely punished. Will the authorities also overhaul the financial systems so that the lives of innocent investors and pensioners are not destroyed by these financial psychopaths again?
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The Asia-Pacific page covers the emerging Japanese rice scandal. In another post, Reynolds refers to similar food scandals and issues of trust in the UK (intensively and critically covered at the time). Yet some people can only complain about Western media bias.
I live and study in China. My Han girlfriend is a doctor directly involved in the diagnosis of the complaints caused by the tainted milk. She's currently too busy solving the problem to waste time whining about imperialist injustice on the internet. People like Beijing_2008 only display their lack of understanding of how the world outside China works.
The hospital workload here is compounded by the fact that, due to medical scandals over the last few years, many Chinese don't even trust the hospitals! They're going to more than one to have the tests duplicated. It's also expected there will be a surge in people travelling into the cities from the rural areas during next week's October holiday, bringing their kids for tests at better equipped urban centres.
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Americans, at least, should not be overcritical. It takes time to develop safe industry.(Don't believe me, read 'The Jungle' by Upton Sinclair.) The U.S. had its own struggles with food safety that continues to this day. I'm sure most developed nations have had similar struggles.
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@ beijing_2008
The reason why this kind of things happened, happens and will keep happening again and again (many other things if not dairy products "any more"), is because the system and the communists officials are corrupt. Only they will ensure that the heartless merchants got proper protections in China. The reason why evil communists are still and will be in power is mainly because there are countless brainless mainland Chinese exactly like YOU to support them, and refuse to accept some constructive opinions from some Westerners like what James did this time.
beijing_2008, even without Xmas and Easter, I see you still manage to dream well. What's your secret? Keep supporting CCP and your kid/s will be in GOOD hands indeed.
Well done, James!
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People, I am sick of what you commented here. It is a tragety for the whole humanbeing, and what you did is trying to attack each other. There is no Chinese, no British, no America here. We are people; we should care about each other. So let me ask you sth, what did you do except attacking sb and trying to reach your dirty, misearbable, political goals? Melamine contamination is a new thing in the food industry; it is not a routine test parameter in Chinese food industry ( I am afraid it is not neither in many other countries, otherwise they won,t accept the contaminated milk food). Should the government be contamned? of course, they are not alert and did not react quickly enough. Did the government try to poison its own people? what the hell is in your head? Did the government seriously treat the accident? well it sacked a vice major who is in charge of food industry; its minister of quality monitoring and assurance steped down. Is the government trying to function and help the victims? well it provided free medical testing and treatment to the victims; it recalled contaminated products all over the world; it put more strigent quality monitoring procedures and standards for food industry; it apologized. So what? Actually what is the difference from this case and the madcow case (do not tell me it happened in different countries). Now let me ask you, what have you done to help. Did you donate money or safe milk powder? did you try not to raise price of exported milk? Did you provide more reasonable advices to the government (I am proud, I did); did you try to help your people and stop trying to get the government down? From your comments I did not see any of them. Shame on you, people of the world!
People of China, let me steal some words from some great people here: do not ask what the country do for you, ask what you can do for the country!! This country belongs only to its people, who live here, care about it, and who love it. Of course we should listen to people out of this country, no matter it is James, some Tibet Independance pros, some Falungongs, but basically it is not Their country. They can help only if they are helpful to the country and only if you accept them as helpful. People of China, it is time to stop talking but acting!
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I seemed to have received a lot of criticism for my earlier comment (which, in the spirit of free speech, has been deleted).
I did not accuse James Reynolds of bias. What I said was that this is exactly the kind of story that he dreams of. By all means cover it, but it's now ridiculous that this story has been given longer coverage on the BBC News Front Page than was given to the Sichuan Earthquake.
You commentators can criticise me all you like - but only I and a few others can see what's really going on here; that of a concerted effort to smear China and to seep the seeds of sinophobia into the subconscious of the world public.
I am not a mouthpiece of the Chinese Government. I do not seek joy in coming on here and always defending China. But I have to. Because what the Western press is conducting now is the modern day equivalent of divide-and-conquer, only now of hearts and minds and not of territory.
I will defend China - the country – with every breadth that I have and in every language that I know; from the hills of Shandong to the rivers of Jiangxi.
This is not nationalistic frenzy. It is the unshakeable belief that the glory of China must never be allowed to die.
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to Beijing-2008,
After reading your claim, I really feel you neither have sentiment nor compassion, you are so stone-hearted, I don't know whether you are Chinese, if you are you aren't worth it. Because Chinese people are one of the greatest in the world. the greatness comes from their contribution to human civilization. Chinese culture can survive up to now, a very important reason is that Chinese traditional philosophies like confucianism and daoism are focusing on human being and compliance to the nature.
But unfortunately, after the western communism has controled China, what's happening in the country is against poeple's life and destroying the environment. Now the tragedy comes to more than 50 thousand innocent babies, what could be more immoral? even a beast knows to love their cub, why you hate a journalist to report the brutal scandal? Don't you hope
Chinese glory would continue and be developed by poisoned Chinese offspring?
You can chant out splendid slogan, but what you are doing is not helping Chinese people but making youself become a complice of the shamless communist party.
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beijing_2008:
If you use half your brain power to think about what you are actually defending, you'd realize you aren't defending the glory of China but rather the ineptness and irresponsibleness of the Chinese government.
And then please use the second half of your brain to ask yourself why you equate Chinese government to China.
You certainly came to a wrong place if you were searching for stories of glories. There are too many trategies to even count.
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Food safety in China is a huge problem since the early years of the Open and Reform era, when people is more motivated by money than spirits. I won’t defend our weakness regarding food safety. But as someone commented on previous James’ post, I think the central government did take some serious measurements to deal with it. As compensation actions, I am pretty satisfied. At least it shows progress in punishing responsible high ranking officers.
However, I would also like to voice out some other things. Not sure how much research James’ and other commentators have done regarding this issue.
1. Sanlu, the company produced toxic milk powder, is a joint-venture company with a New Zealand dairy company, which holds more than 40% of the company. Although they have well known of this toxic milk powder months ago, they didn’t make sufficient efforts to expose this. Is this all our system’s fault? Am I wrong to believe New Zealand has better food safety monitoring system than china? (please look for 19th Sept, Wall Street Journal Asian version for more detail)
2. Don’t think the U.S. and European food safety authorities have total banned melamine contamination in food or introduced routine test on this material.
Don’t blame everything on systems. A system is only as good as are people. Think about how quick and efficient, the U.S. reacted to the Catherina Hurricane years ago? How quick and efficient the U.S. reacted to the sub-prime market crisis? Let along to say, what they did to prevent this happening.
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First off don’t get me wrong China needs to do something about the manufacture poison on all things shops. But I see a lot of China this and China that. I have even seen people say it’s what they deserve. Some have said or implied that it could not happen in the US. But I remember just this year alone all the recalls on this and that one of them being the biggest recall on beef EVER. Dated back 5 years and more going to schools.
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#48, #49
You have both completely misunderstood me. Perhaps with better English, you would have realised that I'm not an apologist for the Chinese government. I'm not its mouthpiece. Where criticism of the government is required, I would duly provide it. As I said previously, I'm a defender only of China - the country.
It's quite clear to me from what you've both written that you're not keen on the CCP. However, the government did not cause this milk scandal! It was the free market - greed - that caused this and similar food scandals in many other countries; yes, even in democracies...
Thus in this case, defending the Chinese government is not the same as defending the individual milk companies, for whom the full force of justice should be bestowed to account for this terrible crime.
Now, you both may not be fans of the Communist Party, and I certainly believe that China should, in the long run, adopt a more enlightened system, but there can be no doubt that it was they who got rooted out foreign imperialism from China. For that, I will be eternally grateful to the Communist Party (though not necessarily always supportive). It is the CCP who restored, and is restoring, some of the previous glory of Imperial China.
As a Chinese, like me, you should always remember that.
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beijing_2008:
Thanks for your clarification. I finally understood you. You are not exactly an apologist. You are an apologist/imperialist.
The government didn't instruct the milk manufacturers to use poisonous chemicals; therefore, it shouldn't be blamed. Hmmm.... according to this line of reasoning, the government will be held responsible for almost nothing except for killing its own citizens as it did 20 years ago because there are always greedy people behind every scandal.
Speaking of western conspiracies, the biggest conspiracy ever was the imposition of communism, which was entirely western, on Chinese people. A Chinese like you who writes beautiful English should really revisit the history. Just remember not to use the books published by CCP though.
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#53
When I talked about restoring the glory of Imperial China, I meant China again leading the world in the arts and sciences, as it did for centuries. Why did you allude to imperial-ism? China is not an imperialist country. The world China - in Chinese - should easily clarify that.
The job of any government is to protect its people. It does this primarily through a set of laws governing what people, and businesses, should or should not do. Your criticism of my logic, therefore, doesn't hold. You said
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The government didn't instruct the milk manufacturers to use poisonous chemicals; therefore, it shouldn't be blamed. Hmmm.... according to this line of reasoning, the government will be held responsible for almost nothing.........
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By reverse logic you're implying that the government should be responsible for every company or person that breaks the law - from companies that are complicit in money laundering to a thief robbing a pensioner.
That is silly.
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